Friday, January 28, 2011

Today, we went on our first field trip to the Kansas History Museum. We had a great time looking at all things Kansas. The students even went on a scavenger hunt to find the Kansas symbols that we have been learning about. Also, the Wizard of Oz characters were all there in honor of Kansas' 150th birthday. The kids loved meeting them and getting their autographs!We also finished making our Kansas fans in reading groups. We made them because we are "fans" of Kansas. :-) On one side of the fan, we drew our favorite state symbol. On the other side was a picture of Kansas' state capital, and we wrote "I love Kansas."Lastly, V celebrated her 6th birthday today. She brought in delicious cupcakes and fruit punch. It was a great ending to our day.Bouncing on the spring bed inside of the train at the Kansas History MuseumSitting inside the trainPosing with DorothyPosing with Glenda They made hats at the museumA video of two friends at the museum

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

As some of you may know, the state of Kansas is getting ready to celebrate the big 1-5-0. As you can imagine, we have been learning a lot about Kansas lately. We have been working on a book in reading groups called, "Kansas, Kansas, What do you See?" It reads just like the Brown Bear book but uses Kansas state symbols instead of animals. After 7 days of hard work, we finally finished the book. Today, we invited our principal, Mrs. Cooney to come listen to us read the book. I got it on video, so you could see just what a great job they did. :-)

We also made Kansas state flags today. First, we colored in our state seal. They were great at following directions, considering that it is a very detailed seal. Then, we cut out the seal and glued it to a big, blue piece of a construction paper. Lastly, we glued the word Kansas to the bottom of the flag. Check out the awesome work we did:

Friday, January 21, 2011

Today, we made a snow person glyph. All of the questions on the glyph were about snow. I included a picture of the directions from the glyph. As usual, they did a great job following the directions. :-)Also, I read the book "The Snowy Day" to them again. It was a perfect book to read with the weather we've had. Then, I gave them picture cards with pictures from the story. We put them in order. These kids have great memories!I also included a picture of the graph we did on Wednesday. We made a favorite ice cream graph. I did not anticipate so many students would like chocolate, but we figured out a solution. Lastly, we celebrated another 1/2 birthday today. Happy 1/2 Birthday Y!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Today, we did another science lesson on living and non-living things. We reviewed that living things are things that grow and need food and water. We talked about how non-living things do not need these things. Next, I gave them a piece of paper that had the words "living things" written on one side and "non-living things" written on the other. Then, I gave the students magazines. They looked through the magazines and cut out living and non-living things, and they glued them to the appropriate side. They did awesome! They even remembered that trees, plants, fruits, and vegetables are living because they grow and need water. I was very proud. :-) We also celebrated C's 6th birthday today.

Cutting out and gluing living and non-living thingsA few of their finished papersHappy 6th Birthday C!

Friday, January 14, 2011

We took down our stocking bulletin board and made beautiful, glitter hearts for a Valentines Day bulletin board. First, we cut out pink hearts. Then, we cut apart blue and purple tissue paper and glued it to the heart. Lastly, I put glitter glue on their heart, and they spread it around the heart with a paint brush. They turned out beautiful and really shimmer in the sunlight.We also played another fun snowman game in math. The students cut out 6 pieces of a snowman. Each piece of the snowman was numbered. Then, I partnered the students up and gave each set of partners a dice. If the students rolled a 3, they would glue the snowman piece with a 3 on the paper. If a student rolled a number he/she had already rolled, they would lose their turn. The first one with a finished snowman won the game. Everybody got to put their snowman together in the end and color it. We really worked on congratulating the partner that won and practiced being good sports.

Cutting and gluing the tissue paper to the heartsPainting on the glitter glueThe finished bulletin boardVideo clips of three sets of partners playing the snowman game